Novena to St Philip Neri: 9th Day

To-morrow is the feast of St Philip Neri: to-day is the eve of the feast, and the last day of his Novena.  Please consult my last year's posting of a pious passage from Fr Faber, so as to prepare the better for the feast... (and make use of Newman's Litany of St Philip).

Fittingly for the eve of one who was the Third Apostle of Rome, confidant of Popes, loyal son of the Apostolic See, unwearying accepter of crosses and tribulations, and zealous votary of primitive saints and martyrs, this day marks the feast of St Gregory VII, and St Urban I - both Popes, the latter a martyr, and the former all but a martyr, who expired saying "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile."

In Christchurch, I and any other traditionalist Catholic am spoilt for choices, with two daily Latin Masses: 7.30am Mass with the F.Ss.R. at their chapel of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, or 8.15am Mass with the F.S.S.P. at the beautiful Bl Sacrament Cathedral?  Well, as my hotel is less than a kilometre from the latter, I think I'll walk there... it will be nice to see Fr Rizzo again!

(According to my schedule, I will be driving down from Christchurch to Dunedin to-day.  Of your charity, pray for all tourists and travellers, including yours truly!)

Novena to St Philip Neri: 8th Day

This post was composed some days ago; hopefully as this appears on my blog, I am on my way to the 10am Sunday Mass in Rutland St, St Albans, Christchurch at the chapel of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer... ora pro me.

At home, this would be the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians; but, since yours truly is supposed to be in New Zealand, the Mass of Sunday after the Ascension will presumably be what I'll find celebrated.

(See here for a passage from Fr Faber in honour of St Philip, which may be used as part of the Novena in his honour, for which I intend to pray Newman's Litany of St Philip.)

Novena to St Philip Neri: 7th Day

(The first map of New Zealand, made by Captain Cook during his, the first circumnavigation thereof in 1769-1770.  The North Island is labelled Eaheinomauwe, and the South Island Toai Poonamoo - Cook's transcriptions of their Maori names Tehinga o Maui, a variant of Te Ika a Māui, and Te Wai Pounamu.)

I will appreciate readers sparing a prayer for a safe journey for me - I fly from here in Tasmania to the South Island of New Zealand this afternoon and evening.  (If I'm still in Australia when about to read Vespers, they would be first Vespers of Our Lady Help of Christians, whose proper Office I posted last year - but if I'm out of the country, it will be first Vespers of Sunday after the Ascension...)

As this is a Saturday, the Breviary celebrates Our Lady in the usual manner.

Prayers ought also be said in preparation for the feast of St Philip Neri, Confessor, Founder of the Oratorians - such as the soon-to-be beatified Cardinal Newman's Litany of St Philip.  Here is a link to a relevant text of Fr Faber that I posted last year; it may be used with profit as a meditation concerning St Philip.

Novena to St Philip Neri: 6th Day

As part of the ongoing Novea to St Philip, one of Fr Faber's devout reflections may be accessed here; and his fellow Oratorian Ven. John Henry Newman's Litany of St Philip is well worth praying.

Pray for us, St Philip: 

that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Novena to St Philip Neri: 5th Day

The Lord ascends with trumpet blast: 

sing praise to our King, sing praise!

The Breviary bids this Thursday be the solemn annual remembrance of Our Lord's Ascension into heaven, marking the supreme triumph of His sacred humanity, evermore united body and soul to His Divine Person, raised up and exalted above all the heavens, and seated henceforth upon the throne of God: it is our triumph in hope, for if our Head has so ascended, so may we His members pray one day we shall join Him there, as sharers in His victory.

We ought have our thoughts on heavenly things, not on things of earth: raising our hearts to the Lord in heaven, it may also be profitable to lift up our eyes and contemplate the saints in glory, hidden with Christ in God, as we beg may be our part and portion after this life of trial has run its course.

For the same reason, let us henceforth invoke the Holy Ghost to come with yet more vehemence into our souls, to make us the saints that we are called to be - else never shall we enter heaven and there rejoice with all the saints.

Fr Faber provided meditations in preparation for the feast of his Father Founder, St Philip, which is upcoming, and happily coincides so closely with this sacred season of heavenly longing; here is a link to one I posted last year... also for the Novena, Newman's Litany of St Philip is most suitable.

St Philip Neri, pray for us unto Christ God, that He save our souls!

Novena to St Philip Neri: 4th Day

To-day is the Vigil of the Ascension, as well as the last rogation day; as it is of the 2nd class, no commemoration is made of to-day's saint, but all comes from the Common of Eastertide and the Proper - despite it being a Vigil, the Preces are not read at Lauds, presumably because the joy of Easter trumps the usual sobriety and strictness of a Vigil.  With evening comes first Vespers of the Ascension...

While he is not feasted on this date this year, it is useful to recall St Bernardine of Siena, indefatigable preacher of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and a fellow Italian saint dear to St Philip Neri's heart: what a joy to ceaseless hymn and repeat over and again the Name of Our Lord, the Name that brings salvation - Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...

I am using Newman's Litany of St Philip for this Novena. Last year I gave passages from Fr Faber for each day of St Philip's Novena; please click this link.

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As to-day my mum is having an operation, if my readers could spare her a prayer I and she and all the family would be most grateful.

Novena to St Philip Neri: 3rd Day

We celebrate a holy hermit and a Pope this day: St Peter Celestine, the only man freely to abdicate the Chair of the Fisherman.  No doubt St Philip, ever steadfast in refusing every high office pressed upon him - even the Cardinalate: when one Pope put the red hat on his head, he laughingly returned it - would have earnestly admonished his followers to imitate so extraordinary an example of humility.

For the Novena, pray for instance Newman's Litany of St Philip.

Consider what Fr Faber wrote of his spiritual father, the Founder of the Oratorians, which I quoted last year...

Novena to St Philip Neri: 2nd Day

Philip Neri ever counselled his disciples to read saint's lives, to be attent to sermons, to be assiduous in prayer, to be habitues of the confessional. He lived in close communion with the saints of primitive times, and so would have gladly celebrated the Mass and Office of to-day's saint, Venantius, a martyr at Camerino under Decius - just as he hailed the students of the English College with the words Salvete flores martyrum, recognizing them as worthy heirs of the faithful of old, who would stand fast for Christ unto death.

One of Philip's devotees used to say,

"When I consider my sins I feel myself a lost man; but through the prayers of Father Philip I hope to be saved."

With such thoughts in mind, pray Newman's Litany of St Philip; and consult Fr Faber's meditation on St Philip, which I published here last year...

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This is the Collect of St Venantius:

Deus, qui hunc diem beati Venantii Martyris tui triumpho consecrasti: exaudi preces populi tui, et praesta; ut qui ejus merita veneramur, fidei constantiam imitemur. Per...

(God, Who hast consecrated this day to the triumph of blessed Venantius Thy Martyr: hear the prayers of Thy people, and grant, that we who revere his merits, may imitate the constancy of his faith. Through...)

The Martyr's triumph is the irruption in his life of the Paschal Victory of Christ: it ought be for us not merely a cause of passing joy, but a serious call to imitation of such faith, a stedfast witness to Our Lord usque ad mortem - as the Apostle said, "Imitate me, as I imitate Christ." (I Cor. xi, 1.)

Apparently Pope Clement X was previously bishop of Camerino (a small town in the Marches of the Papal States), and he it was who composed the proper Office hymns for the feast of St Venantius, the patron of his former see:

Matins Hymn

Athleta Christi nobilis
Idola damnat gentium,
Deique amore saucius
Vitae pericla despicit.

Loris revinctus asperis,
E rupe praeceps volvitur:
Spineta vultum lancinant:
Per saxa corpus scinditur.

Dum membra raptant martyris,
Languent siti satellites:
Signo crucis Venantius
E rupe fontes elicit.

Bellator o fortissime,
Qui perfidis tortoribus
E caute praebes poculum,
Nos rore gratiae irriga.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique sancte Spiritus:
Da per preces Venantii
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.

Noble champion of the Lord!
Armed against idolatry!
In thy fervent zeal for God
Death had naught of fear for thee.

Bound with thongs, thy youthful form
Down the rugged steep they tear,
Jagged rock and rending thorn
All thy tender flesh lay bare.

Spent with toil, the savage crew,
Fainting, sinks with deadly thirst;
Thou the cross dost sign; and lo!

From the rock the waters burst.

Saintly warrior-prince! who thus
thy tormentors couldst forgive;
Pour the dew of grace on us,
Bid our fainting spirits live.

To thee, O Father, with the Son
And Holy Spirit, glory be;
Oh, grant us through thy martyr's prayer
The joys of immortality. Amen.

Lauds Hymn

Dum nocte pulsa lucifer
Diem propinquam nuntiat,
Nobis refert Venantius
Lucis beatae munera.

Nam criminum caliginem,
Stygisque noctem depulit,
Veroque cives lumine
Divinitatis imbuit.

Aquis sacri baptismatis
Lustravit ille patriam:
Quos tinxit unda milites,
In astra misit martyres.

Nunc angelorum particeps,
Adesto votis supplicum:
Procul repelle crimina,
Tuumque lumen ingere.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique sancte Spiritus:
Da per preces Venantii
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.

The golden star of morn
Is climbing in the sky;
The birthday of Venantius
Awakes the Church to joy.

His native land in depths
Of pagan darkness lay;
He o'er her guilty regions poured
The light of heavenly day.

Her in baptismal streams
Of grace he purified;
E'en those who came to take his life,
With him as martyrs died.

With the angels now he shares
Those joys which never cease;
Look down on us, O Spirit blest,
And send us gifts of peace.

Praise to the Father, Son,
And, Holy Ghost, to thee,
Oh, grant us through thy martyr's prayer
A blest eternity. Amen.

Vespers Hymn

Martyr Dei Venantius,
Lux et decus Camertium,
Tortore victo et judice,
Laetus truimphum concinit.

Annis puer, post vincula,
Post carceres, post verbera,
Longa fame frementibus
Cibus datur leonibus.

Sed ejus innocentiae
Parcit leonum immanitas,
Pedesque lambunt martyris,
Irae famisque immemores.

Verso deorsum vertice
Haurire fumum cogitur:
Costas utrimque et viscera
Succensa lampas ustulat.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique sancte Spiritus:
Da per preces Venantii
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.

Venantius, hail! God's martyr bright,
thy country's honour and her light;
Who didst with joy thy triumph sing,
thy judge and tortures conquering.

A child in years, he heeds no pain,
Nor dungeon damp, nor galling chain;
The tender youth for food is thrown
To lions, mad with hunger grown.

O wondrous sight! the beasts of prey
Their food reject, and turn away;
Then tamely lick the martyr's feet,
A tribute to his virtue meet.

Then downwards hung, his mouth exposed
To clouds of smoke beneath disposed,
Whilst with slow torches, burning clear,
His naked breasts and sides they sear.

Praise to the Father, and the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One;
Oh! grant that through this martyr's prayer,
Your blissful joy we all may share. Amen.

Novena to St Philip Neri: 1st Day

To-day, besides being the fifth Sunday after Easter, marks the beginning of the Novena in preparation for the feast of St Philip Neri: for instance, recite Newman's Litany of St Philip.

Here's a link to my notes on this day last year...

Lowly St Philip, pray for us!

Novena to St Philip Neri 2009

It's that time of year again: the feast of St Philip Neri approaches (it falls on the 26th of May, which will find me en route from Dunedin to Te Anau in N.Z.), and so to-morrow, Sunday the 17th, is the first day of his Novena: nine days' prayer - for which I suggest Newman's Litany of St Philip.

Last year I also posted some of Fr Faber's meditations concerning St Philip; I will be setting posts linking back to these, since they may be of relevance.

Wednesday of the 1st week after Pentecost - 5th Day of the Novena to St Philip Neri

A feria! I've just begun Matins... apparently, while the Holy See never created a Vigil for Corpus Christi, which begins with 1st Vespers tonight, there was an indulgence for fasting or somesuch on this Wednesday before the Feast.

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For St Philip's Novena, from Fr Faber:

IV. HIS REALITY.

I do not think that any devout person can look long on St. Philip’s picture without growing somewhat afraid of him. He is the Apostle of liberty, and yet somehow not a man to take liberties with.
I. We meet with men in the world
1. Whom we admire and love — yet are not at ease with — feel untruthful with. We have an instinctive fear of their influence, and are restless when we have to do with them.
2. There is something in them which we wish away: and yet if it was away they would not be the same men, nor should we ourselves love and admire them so much.
3. It is their reality — their genuineness — their truth — not so much their truthfulness as their truth.
II. Reality.
1. A real man is a man without secrets or diplomacy.
2. His extreme simplicity, and his singleness of purpose, invest him with a kind of sternness, so that we feel rebuked in his presence.
3. Yet his heart is always full of gushing sympathies and kindness.
4. He has a sort of impatience with foolishness, insincerity, and circuitousness.
5. He sometimes tries us by the way he keeps to the one point, and slips off disguises, and walks on such a very straight road.
III. To live with such a man is an education in itself, and this is just what St. Philip was. I dare say sometimes men thought him even wooden, because he was so pertinaciously real, never unbending from his simplicity, never giving his genuineness a holiday.
1. His common sense in plans, in government, in direction: his dislike of changes, and of nonsense talked in the confessional.
2. His sternness which flashed out when any insincerity came in his way, or any making of difficulties.
3. The stress he laid on perseverance, by which he prevented liberty of spirit from degenerating into off-handness and free-and-easiness.
4. His crusade against human respect — the queer things he did himself and made his people do. All meant nothing more or less than this.
5. His mortification of the judgment also made men real, while it hindered liberty from becoming license.
Of all the things which I admire in our Holy Father I admire none so much as his reality. It is the great want of the times. It is the grace of all graces which we every one of us stand most in need of.

[Faber, Frederick William. Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects. Volume 1. “Mysteries and Festivals.” 3rd ed. London: Burns & Oates, n.d. [post 1866], pp. 369-71]

Trinity Sunday - 2nd Day of Novena to St Philip Neri

Glory to Thee, Trinity! - and to captives, liberty.

(See my earlier post regarding the Trinitarians.)

Today I again quote from Fr Faber as part of the lead-up to St Philip's feast:

I. SKETCH OF THE SAINT’S LIFE.

All lives of men are beautiful in their changes and vicissitudes, all full of romance and poetry: or like various music, a quiet pastoral, a stirring march, a pathetic drama, a touching elegy, or strains of mutable, fitful sweetness. Such is man’s life as outward Providence ordains it: sin mars it. We are concerned now with a life lived in the sixteenth century in the great city of Rome, which with manifold vibrations is working still on earth.
I. St. Philip’s Picture.
1. The aged priest for the most part ashy pale, not foreign-looking to us.
2. With a soft mellow sweetness as of one to be familiar with, yet with a sternness underneath as of one not to take liberties with.
3. Very simple and childlike, yet with a depth as of one who knew secrets and had seen visions. We do not exactly know why, but as we look on him we think of St. Joseph.
II. The Boyhood.
1. He was born in beautiful Florence, on the eve of St. Mary Magdalen. The gravity and sweetness of his childhood, which yet was not without traits of humour and fun and geniality.
2. Gaeta — the cleft mountain — the inheritance renounced.
III. The beginnings at Rome.
1. He was drawn there by instinct, and lived there at first as a tutor in poverty and silence.
2. In catacombs, and studying in moonlit porticoes.
3. Receiving pilgrims and visiting hospitals.
4. Priesthood — St. Girolamo — the Seven Churches — beginnings of the Oratory — his penitents.
IV. The sort of life.
1. Absence of all singularity.
2. Miracles daily, and ecstasies almost continually.
3. Apostolate of conversation and supernatural outbreaks of devotion.
4. He silently took possession of all Rome as a perfume fills a room.
5. After eighty years he dies. And this life so beautiful on earth was quietly translated to heaven, to be continued still more beautifully — and on earth houses rose up all over the world to catch the image of that life, and to try to live it over again, and everywhere loving hearts gather round these houses and feel instinctively a joy and a security in belonging to St. Philip.

[Faber, Frederick William. Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects. Volume 1. “Mysteries and Festivals.” 3rd ed. London: Burns & Oates, n.d. [post 1866], pp. 363-4]

Novena to St Philip Neri - 1st Day

Today I'm feeling a bit unwell, and taking things slowly...

However, today I must begin my Novena to St Philip Neri, and intend to do so, first of all, by praying each day the Litany of St Philip Neri, which may be found, together with Newman's Novena to him, here.

However, I also wish to post here, since they aren't otherwise online, some other items referring to Holy Father Philip, such as those of Fr Faber's own sermon notes that can be assembled to make up a Novena; and, since Faber's notes on St Philip only extend to eight in the book I consulted, I choose to begin with his sermon notes for Pentecost, since today is Whit Saturday, and also because these notes refer to St Philip's own unique communion with the Holy Ghost:

GOD A GOD OF FIRE. [Whitsunday, 1858]

I. I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled? [Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur?] — St. Luke xii. 49. How strange this sounds from Jesus, meek and humble of heart! [Cf. St. Matthew xi. 29.]
1. Compare the spirit of it with the night of the Incarnation and the night of Bethlehem.
2. Or the quiet fires in the hearts of Mary and Joseph in the holy House of Nazareth.
3. Or with the abysses of the abjection of the Passion.
4. Or with the secret apparitions of the beautiful Forty Days after the Resurrection.
5. Or with the passive, patient stillness of the Blessed Sacrament.
II. Yet the scene at Pentecost.
1. They wait, Mary in the midst, and the chosen few, for Him Who is to be so much to them that it was well that Jesus should go away. [Cf. Acts i. 13, 14; St John xvi. 7.]
2. They wait for Him, Who is eminently the Spirit of Jesus, and who will bring to mind all he said. [Cf. St. John xiv. 26.]
3. For Him with Whom Jesus in His Human Nature has now been ten days in heaven! Oh, the marvellous occupations of those ten days!
4. He comes to them in the vehement majesty of a mighty wind, and scatters Himself in showers of fire like cloven tongues. [Cf. Acts ii. 2, 3.]
5. So that Mary and the Apostles seemed to the multitudes to be drunk with new wine. [Cf. Acts ii. 13.]
III. God always a God of fire.
1. He calls Himself so: The Lord thy God is a consuming fire. Deut. iv. 24. [& Heb. xii. 29.]
2. He appeared as such to Isaias; as a whirlwind and enfolding fire to Ezekiel. [Cf. Ezech. i. 27.] St. John says (Apoc. i. 14), His eyes were as a flame of fire.
3. Burning Bush: in the inner folds of the desert, and ravines of Horeb, to Moses. [Ex. iii. 2.]
4. (Daniel vii. 9, 10.) His throne like flames; the wheels of it like burning fire, and a swift stream of fire issued forth from before Him: vision seen in the first year of Baltassar, King of Babylon.
5. In these sweet fires we are to dwell eternally. Isaias (xxxiii. 14) asks, which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? and the answer is, he that walketh in justices.
IV. So our religion is a religion of fire.
1. It was the one will of Jesus to kindle this fire on earth.
2. The Holy Ghost is never otherwise in the heart than as fire.
3. The fires of the Eternal Father are to be our everlasting home.
4. What manner of fire should we have then?
Fiery love, fiery faith, fire consuming self, fire burning the world out of our hearts, fire likely to make men think us drunk or mad.
5. What is the case in reality? Do we burn? Are we vehement? Do our hearts throb and beat tumultuously with the love of God? Do we understand that lifelong broken heart of our great father St. Philip, burst with the ball of fire, which was the Holy Ghost? — Oh if our religion be a moral indifference, a calm bargaining with God, a prudential speculation, a discreet fear of hell, a frigid propriety, a servile keeping of the letter of God’s law, — it may be a religion — but is it the religion written in the Bible? Is it the fire which it was our dearest Lord’s one will to kindle?
Oh that the Divine Person would come down upon us with His fire to-day, would break our hearts with the magnificent excesses of the love of God, would burn us with the pain of the great pleasure of His fire! Sweet, gentle, plaintive, vehement, fiery, enthusiast Spirit! — Oh that He would so light His flames in our hearts that from this hour our whole life should be nothing but an unbroken Pentecost!

[Faber, Frederick William. Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects. Volume 1. “Mysteries and Festivals.” 3rd ed. London: Burns & Oates, n.d. [post 1866], pp. 103-5]

This certainly makes for a good examination of conscience!

Furthermore, it corresponds to the heartfelt plea of these chants, readings, and collects used at the Ember Saturday Mass today - or rather, to what should be felt in the heart when praying them:

The charity of God is diffused throughout our hearts, alleluia, by the indwelling of His Spirit in us, alleluia. ... [Introit, from Romans v, 5 (which is also read as part of today's Epistle, and is used also for the Feast of St Philip)]

Mentibus nostris, quæsumus, Domine, Spiritum Sanctum benignus infunde: cujus et sapientia conditi sumus, et providentia gubernamur. Per... in unitate ejusdem Spiritus Sancti...

(Into our minds, we beseech, Lord, the Holy Spirit benignly pour: by Whose wisdom we were created and by Whose providence we are governed. Thro'... in the unity of the same Holy Ghost...)

I will pour out My Spirit over all flesh... And moreover over my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour out my Spirit... [From the 1st Lesson - Joel ii, 28-32]

Illo nos igne, quæsumus, Domine, Spiritus Sanctus inflammet: quem Dominus noster Jesus Christus misit in terram, et voluit vehementer accendi: Qui tecum vivit... in unitate ejusdem...

(May the Holy Ghost inflame us with that fire, we beseech, Lord, that our Lord Jesus Christ sent to earth, and vehemently willed to enkindle: Who with Thee liveth... in the unity of the same... [Cf. St Luke xii, 49])

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy love. [Alleluia verse after the fourth lesson]

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
et emitte cælitus
lucis tuæ radium.

Veni, pater pauperum,
veni, dator munerum
veni, lumen cordium.

Consolator optime,
dulcis hospes animæ,
dulce refrigerium.

In labore requies,
in æstu temperies
in fletu solatium.

O lux beatissima,
reple cordis intima
tuorum fidelium.

Sine tuo numine,
nihil est in homine,
nihil est innoxium.

Lava quod est sordidum,
riga quod est aridum,
sana quod est saucium.

Flecte quod est rigidum,
fove quod est frigidum,
rege quod est devium.

Da tuis fidelibus,
in te confidentibus,
sacrum septenarium.

Da virtutis meritum,
da salutis exitum,
da perenne gaudium.
Amen. Alleluja.

I try to pray to the Holy Spirit in these terms, and will redouble my efforts!